[LINK] Is it unethical to infringe a patent?

Gordon Keith gordonkeith at acslink.net.au
Fri Aug 18 15:09:38 AEST 2006


On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:49, Geoff Ramadan wrote:
> > Unethical?  Very tricky.  Depends on your ethics doesn't it?  If you
> > have the ethics of a modern company then no, nothing much is unethical
> > because companies aren't people and have no ethics.
>
> Surely companies are run by people, decisions are made by people (on behalf
> of a company) therefore the ethics of the company relate directly to the
> ethics of the people running the company.

But is it ethical to act ethically?

I've heard it argued that companies are required by law to act in the best 
interest of shareholders. If a company director has to choose between actions 
that are ethical, but not in the interest of shareholders, or unethical but 
in the interest of shareholders then the directory is legally and ethically 
required to act unethically.

Regards
Gordon




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